Synthetic marijuana use down, but real pot use up among teens

While use of synthetic pot is down among high schoolers, more teens are smoking real marijuana, a government survey
revealed.

Health officials are concerned, as the survey also found fewer teens are
worried about the potential dangerous effects from marijuana use.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National
Institutes of Health released the 2013 Monitoring the Future survey on Wednesday.
The annual survey asks eighth, 10th and 12th graders across the country about
their drug use history and how they feel about illicit drugs. This year’s
survey involved results from 41,675
students from 389 schools.

Synthetic marijuana -- often sold under the brands K2 or
Spice -- was not as popular as it used to be among 12th graders. The survey showed 7.9
percent of high school seniors surveyed admitted to using it this year, while
11.9 said they smoked it last year.

Daily pot use among high school seniors was recorded
at 6.5 percent, up 4 percent over the last 20 years. Overall, 23 percent of
seniors, 18 percent of 10th graders and 12 percent of eight graders
lit up in the month before being surveyed.

In addition, Dr. Margaret Haney, director of the
Marijuana Research Lab in the department of psychiatry at Columbia University
Medical Center, previously told CBS News that weed may be addicting for about 10 percent of users. They may experience withdrawal symptoms including trouble
sleeping, irritability, anxiety and food consumption differences when they stop
smoking.

“We should be extremely concerned that 12 percent of 13-
to 14-year-old s are using marijuana,” NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow
said in a press release. “The children whose experimentation leads
to regular use are setting themselves up for declines in IQ and diminish ed
ability for success in life.”

Part of the concern is because marijuana today is
stronger than it used to be. In 1990, marijuana had about 3.35 percent Tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), the active ingredient that gets users high. In 2013, pot contained a
little less than 15 percent THC on average.

“This is
not just an issue of increased daily use…. Daily use today can have stronger
effects on a developing teen brain than it did 10 or 20 years ago,” Volkow said.

Over the last five years, opioid, alcohol and cigarette
use also declined, according to the survey. Vicodin and salvia use was down amongst the oldest teens surveyed,
as well as the use of inhalants by eighth graders. Cocaine, heroin and
methamphetamine abuse levels remained low among students.

However, researchers were startled to find that non-medical
use of Adderall has increased over the last four years. About 7.4 percent of
high school seniors said they used Adderall recreationally in 2013. The researchers
believe that teens think that using the prescription ADHD drug will help their
grades, and there is some evidence they are using the pills to get high.

The researchers pointed out that the survey only involved teens who are still in school. Twenty-five percent of the class of 2010 did not
graduate, and heavy marijuana use is often associated with high school drop
outs, the researchers said.